Simple Melodies
by rainbows-and-fries
Summary: "She knew he could play. She had heard him a bazillion times when he played with his band. But never like this. This was different." Grace hears Nelson play the piano, and asks him for a favor he isn't sure if he want to do for her.


Grace could hear the music. But she couldn't decide exactly from where she was hearing it. It was nearby, she could tell, that swift melody produced by a single piano. She wanted to find the source of it. It was so beautiful. So complicated yet somehow so simple. It was like all the good things, all the hot-chocolate and puppy dogs and unicorns all just came to one in that melody and Grace didn't just want to find it. She needed to.

The school was fairly empty because she had stayed late and studied. Yes. Studied. If Molly had known she probably would've shouted at Grace for being such a pathetic loser. Perfs do not study. But Grace wanted to learn, she really did. She found school interesting. She just couldn't tell anyone.

The piano music seemed to be coming from a room a little bit further down the hall. Was it the choir-room maybe? Grace wasn't sure but it must've been something like it, because why would there be a piano there otherwise?

She walked slowly towards the slightly ajar door and peeked through it. There on a stool in front of the massive piano sat Nelson. His fingers were flying over the keys. Back and forth at such a tremendous speed Grace found herself almost hypnotized by it. She just stood there, mouth agape, staring at the boy playing. She knew he could play. She had heard him a bazillion times when he played with his band. But never like this. This was different. This wasn't the typical Gravity 5, chord based type of music. This was real classical music with twists and turns and complicated finger-work. And he was doing it so well.

Nelson played on, unaware of his new company. But when he accidentally hit the wrong key and broke himself off he got the feeling someone was watching and he turned around. The blush on his face was immediate. He looked at the blonde girl standing in the doorframe, who in turn was staring right back at him with something much like awe in her eyes.

"G-Grace?" Nelson spluttered, looking down at his feet.

"I didn't know you played classical." Grace said, still staring at him.

He didn't know what to answer. So he just shrugged and looked up at her shyly, hiding a little bit behind a curtain of hair.

"You're really good." Grace informed him and Nelson rolled his eyes.

"I missed the right key. It sounded awful."

"I didn't even notice." Grace smiled and somehow Nelson forgot how extremely scared he was of talking to her and smiled back.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Grace was somewhat out of her trance and she nodded enthusiastically as she spoke.

"Thanks." Nelson smiled tentatively again and silence settled between them. Nelson didn't want to ask Grace to leave, even though he knew there was no way he would be able to play now that she was there. He also didn't want to leave himself because that would obviously be very rude to Grace so instead he just sat there.

"Can you play it again?" Grace asked after a minute of silence.

Nelson frowned.

"I don't know. I've never played for another person before."

"But…" Grace furrowed her eyebrows in confusion "you just played for me."

Nelson sighed. "I didn't _know _I was playing for you."

"But you did." Grace's face was scrunched up in a puzzled expression. He couldn't help but think about how adorable she looked and then inevitably he started thinking about how much he liked her and in turn that made him extremely nervous again.

"I-I kn-Know. But you… you know…"

"Know what?"

Nelson spluttered some syllables that Grace couldn't have put together to words even if she really tried.

"You should play." At this Grace stepped in to the room and sat down next to Nelson on the stool. He turned around and faced the piano as well.

"Alright." He stretched his fingers a little before looking at Grace, who was just nodding encouragingly at him and then he started playing. The feeling of complete happiness settled back inside Grace as the melody filled the room. She looked at his hands and it was even more impressive up close. His fingers were moving so quickly across the keyboard it almost scared Grace a little. Nelson missed a couple of notes, mostly due to how extremely nervous he felt knowing Grace was sitting mere inches to his right watching him play, but when he did Grace gave him a smile and he picked up right where he was. When he finished Grace clapped her hands together a couple of times in delight, the smile on her face wider than ever, and with a bright sparkle in her eyes.

"I wish I could play like you." She said dreamily. "Oh I know. You could teach me!"

Nelson stared at the girl next to him, not fully understanding what she was asking him of.

"I don't know I-"

"It's a great idea." Grace exclaimed.

"But it's-"

"This is going to be so much fun."

Grace was completely ecstatic. Her eyes were shining brightly in a way Nelson had never seen before and maybe it was that spark that made Nelson cave in.

"Okay I'll do it."

"Yay!" Grace threw her arms around the boy and hugged him tightly, and even though Nelson nearly choked to death right there he felt like the happiest man on earth.

"So how do you do it?" Grace asked as she let go. "How do you make your fingers move like that?"

Nelson took a deep breath.

"Look Grace." He almost changed his mind right there. What was he getting himself into, really? What if he couldn't teach Grace to play the piano? What if she would never talk to him again? The thought scared him, but he had promised. And he would keep that promise. "If I'm going to teach you this we're going to have to start from the beginning."

"The beginning of the song?" she asked and Nelson mentally slapped himself for committing to this.

"No I mean like… From the beginning... With the basics. Do you know which tone is which?"

Grace furrowed her eyebrows and Nelson sighed as he realized that teaching Grace how to play the piano might take some time. A lot of time.

And he got nervous again.

**AN: I'm thinking about making this longer. But I don't know. Like?**

**I own nothing. Reviews are Hot chocolate and puppy-dogs and unicorns…**


End file.
